Although everyone using Windows 7 would be familiar with the power options of Windows 7 because they can be found in the Start menu but, you won’t find all the options in Windows 8 as there is no Start Menu. Windows 8 has the power options on different places but, all of them are hidden and are not visible to everyone. Well, you don’t have to get annoyed as we will be providing 4 easiest ways to shutdown, restart or put your Windows 8 PC to sleep.

These 4 tips to shutdown are easiest ones and I often use them for shutting down, restart or put my PC to sleep.

Method 1-

You can always go to the Settings Charms of your Windows 8 and access the power options.

Simply go to ‘Settings‘ Charms by moving your mouse down from top right corner or swipe from right side.

Alternatively, you can press ‘Windows key + I’ to open Settings Charm. Here you can press ‘Power’ and the option to shutdown, restart or Sleep would appear on a small pop-up menu.

Press any and you Windows 8 PC will shutdown, restart or go to sleep mode.

Method 2-

The option to select shutdown/restart/sleep from ‘Alt + F4‘ key combination is also there. Simply press the keys and you would be showed the traditional Windows 7 style power options.

Note:Alt + F4 key combination can only be used while on desktop. It won’t work on Metro interface of Windows 8.

Method 3-

You can create Power shortcuts for shutdown and restart on desktop and Start Screen of Windows 8. You will have to go through a small one time process of adding these shortcuts whose complete step by step instructions can be found here (don’t worry these shortcuts will work on Windows 8 RTM as well in-fact, the same can be used on Windows 7 and Vista)

Method 4-

This method seems a bit odd but, still it does the job.

You can first lock your Windows 8 PC by pressing the ‘Windows key + L’ button combination. You PC will be locked.

Simply pass the lock screen image by clicking/swiping to top. Now, you would be asked to enter your password.

Here you can shutdown/restart/sleep your PC. Simply press the power button on the bottom right corner and select your desired option from the pop-up menu.

Your PC will shutdown, restart or go to sleep mode.

Which method do you use to shutdown your Windows 8 PC? Let us know in the comments below.

You may visit our Tips & Tweaks section for more tips, tricks and tweaks about Windows 8.

you can also save the following command in a some.cmd file and double click on it anytime to
shutdown /s /t 0 —– to shutdown
shutdown /r /t 0 —– to restart
off course 0 is to wait 0 seconds before executing the command